Raiding - We all live in a SoO Sub-marine

It was subs city last night - with Nath and Jazz totally exhausted after getting back home just before raid, we needed some DPS to sub in for our heroic raids. I was trying to figure out what was fair and what would be appropriate for each person based on their personalities, skill and gear levels.

Dragonray, as you can see from her post, probably needs a little more encouragement rather than being dropped in the deep end, so I decided that Norushen would be the best fight for her to jump in on. I had also arranged for Tacky to come in and heal it, but he didn't login last night... sigh.

Asys was also MIA.  Luckily I have backup healers these days with Tensai and Dontmountme.

Drauka has actually done some good DPS though last time we demoralised him by taking him to Norushen and sending him in last to be cleansed, so naturally if he looked at damage he would have felt a bit down in the dumps.  I knew Dragon would feel that way as well, but that fight has the least new mechanics and is much like normal.  Drauka went for all fights up to and including Iron Juggernaut.

Dontmountme told me he and Drauka had read up the first 3 fights.  I couldn't help but smirk to myself because I was going to drop the bomb on them and let them do more, which they hadn't read up or watched.  Morz and I had to decide which fights we were going to sit out on and I strategically planned to not go to the bosses that I think are a total waste of (loot) time such as Norushen.

We brought Crooked in for Sha and Galakras.  Poor guy, died a lot on Sha.  You can't really stand still on Sha or you'll go splat.

So, let's go blow-by-blow, shall we? :D

Immerseus was healed by me, Tensai and Dontmountme.  It's a testament to paladin healing because I put Tensai on tank heals whilst me and Dontmountme did raid.  Normally when Morz, Asys or I do tank heals, we're on the bottom of the heals done.  Tensai was top.  Goddamn paladins, is all I can say.  It was Drauka's first time there and I did get a little snarky when people didn't move when the tanks swapped - do you think I just say that to be annoying?  Especially Sev, because if he doesn't move, he doesn't get dispelled, and the reason we move is so that the tank could help hold all the adds in one spot - adds over 2 platforms just aren't easy to tank and hard to AOE down.  And SEV has to move if he wants to be dispelled or he can bloody well dispel himself.  I did apologise later because poor Drauka, Dontmountme and Tensai might have thought I was yelling at them but it was aimed at my wayward lazy officer. Oh, and guess what dropped... a heroic warforged Chestplate of Congealed Corrosion!  So Drauka's first loot was a heroic warforged item... MAN.  But Aimei had a good roll and rolled a heroic warforged Trident of Corrupted Waters so there were cheers all round.

Tensai sat out for Protectors and so Morz, Dontmountme and I healed it. I am not sure what is wrong with my mana but I really needed to use every scrap of mana to work that boss.  I was OOM even!  I think that I might be missing my Jazzbangers mana battery though we did have Mana tide from Dontmountme.  Initially I told Dontmount me to do dispelling with Morz since he never ran out of mana - but he said he couldn't find his dispel button (I'm 99% sure he was trolling/joking), and so I changed my mind.  I had offered him dispelling as an excuse for his low healing but now his job was to try and catch up to our healing since we were now doing dispels. But, he still has some ways to go to catch us and I'm sure when he overtakes me I will never hear the end of it.  Drauka got the Mark of Anguish at one point and he might have been a little bit frozen in mild panic as we yelled at him to pass it off to another DPS before he died to it.  Don't want anymore Sevrus-like heroic gestures which turn into deaths.  Drauka picked up more loot with Sorrowpath Signet.

I sat out for Norushen and we 3 healed it with Morz, Tensai and Dontmountme, and Dragonray and Drauka. Poor Dragonray died, but she was very serious and quiet when she was playing which meant she was concentrating hard (and knowing her, freaking out about stuffing up) and unfortunately for her she didn't get any loot, but Dontmountme picked up Norushen's Enigmatic Barrier.

I said to Morz, "What do you think, shall we unleash the two newer healers on them?" and Morz said I was being mean.  4 newer people on Sha was a little bit mean, but Tensai had done it before so it would be a good way for me to see how he measured up.  And, you never know, it could go OK, as long as people picked up their rifts and they dispelled the debuff 5 seconds before pride or those people would die.  And I let those two have two goes but they died a lot and I said big mother Navi would step in if they couldn't get it in 2 goes.  I asked Tensai what he wanted more - Sha or Galakras - and he said Sha, so I let him stay for Sha and moved Dontmountme out and we managed to get it.  Dontmount me had a few questions about dispelling and it is difficult to time it and you're heavily reliant on the other healer to get their dispels so that you don't have to dispel and put yourself on CD for dispels, but it went better (especially for poor Crooked who died a lot) and we were a bit firmer on picking up rifts and it went ok.  Vanquisher Tier chest dropped and Drauka said "If you want me to give back the chest and take that one, I can do that." Surely he was not SERIOUS! As if we would make him do that, when nobody was going to take it - he might as well take the Tier as offspec! So lucky him, free offspec Tier.  Lucky Crooked walked away with Gaze of Arrogance.

Onwards to Galakras, and I told Morz to come in and heal Crooked, so I sat out.  I was secretly hoping for us to run out of time to do Iron Juggernaut because I really hate Iron Juggernaut.  But they one shot it, and Lushen walked out with Heroic Warforged Kogra's Venom Soaked Gauntlets. Dontmountme was on the bottom, and I was pleased to hear that he actually ran out of mana on that one because it meant he was using his healing to his full potential! The main thing was he managed to heal his section and didn't die.  Crooked and Drauka did towers in Jazz and Nath's place and it was a breeze with Morz there holding their hands. Gala is not that much different from normal so I think all 3 of those new guys found it a rather reasonable heroic to do.

Sars had been on standby but he did have work to do so I sat him out instead and he was happy with that. He actually popped into vent to listen to raid - he said he liked listening to "white noise" as he worked and he laughed when I jumped back into the raid and said to me, "Everyone has suddenly gone all serious now that Navi is back in the raid..." Which I have no idea what he was talking about because all I heard was constant ribbing of how that GM of Frostwolves is so coordinated she runs into Thok's stationary mouth to be eaten.

I moaned and groaned at having to do Iron Juggernaut. The warlocks were so busy telling the new guys that IJ was such an easy healer fight and that the healers AFK all the time, that nobody had bothered to explain to Drauka the fight until we pulled. And it was hectic and crazy as always.  Tensai was in this time, but Aimei was tired, having flown up and down to Wagga Wagga that day and was probably not playing at his best. We had a few goes, and after the first go Drauka said "Wow there's a lot happening..."  That's putting it mildly.  After that we just wiped some more and then called it for the night.

Thursday didn't start much better.  Must have had about 4 or 5 goes on IJ before we got it down, even though Nath and Jazz were back.  I really do think a Shaman does better on IJ than a paladin in siege mode, but maybe I'm being biased.  When we did kill that stupid scorpion robot I was thrilled to see Sev getting Belt of Ominous Trembles but NOOO he still needs some other item from that boss and so I have to continue being tortured by it.

Dark Shamans had only one wipe I think, maybe two, but it was ok.  Tensai picked up Kardris' Scepter so he as happy.  Then onto Nazgrim and Aimei had some work to do so he sat out, and Lushen was tanking, which meant we needed more DPS.  Drauka was drafted back in and I decided to let Dontmountme try healing it with Morz.  I said two goes, and the first go was bad, but the second go was better and they were in the final phase but they wiped.  I told Dontmountme that he did reasonably well but probably just needed more practice and more gear (and maybe more experienced tanks and DPS - with a new tank, DPS and healer it probably wasn't going to be perfect). And what dropped - MORE stuff for Drauka.  Vanquisher tier gloves and Gar'tok, Strength of the Faithful - which is good for Unholy but Drauka didn't want to use it as frost.  But, nobody else was going to use it so he might as well keep it.

That was it for the night, which means not much time left on Monday for Thok.  I am going to try the extend next week and work on Thok a bit - any excuse really not to have to do Iron Juggernaut or Spoils again!